Meet Ryan: The boy who grew his own esophagus

Dr. Rusty Jennings, Ryan Page, Dr. John Foker Eleven-year-old Ryan Page is a budding trombone player whose favorite foods include candy, popcorn and hot dogs. “Ryan loves any choking hazard,” jokes his mother Tracy. When Ryan was born, few would have predicted he would be able tolerate these foods or master the trombone. “His doctors told us he had the longest gap they had ever seen in a baby with esophageal atresia,” recalls Tracy. Ryan was born with a nearly 4-inch gap between the top and bottom parts of his esophagus. “This is a kid whose predestination based on standard therapy was chronic aspiration (breathing food, liquid or vomit into the airway), chronic lung disease and multiple operations throughout his life. Instead, he’s a normal kid. That’s the miracle of the Foker process,” says Dr. Rusty Jennings, director of Boston Children’s Hospital’s Esophageal Atresia Treatment Center. When Tracy was six months pregnant with Ryan, specialists at Boston Children’s Advanced Fetal Care Center diagnosed him with VACTERL association, a hodge podge of birth defects, with esophageal atresia being the most serious condition. Doctors can’t tell whether a baby has short gap atresia, a relatively easy-to-treat condition, or long gap atresia until after birth. The Pages took a wait-and-see approach to their unborn baby’s condition. When Ryan was born, his gap was a doozy. Doctors inserted a G-tube to feed him because he couldn’t eat on his own, and they rev...
Source: Thrive, Children's Hospital Boston - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Our patients’ stories Advanced Fetal Care Center Dr. John Foker Dr. Rusty Jennings esophageal atresia Esophageal Atresia Treatment Center G-tube Source Type: news